Clearfield updates 'Vision 2020' plan

Tuesday , March 18, 2014 - 3:04 PM

Tanna Woods

CLEARFIELD — The city has updated its 10-year plan for improvement, as it has reached its goals.

Clearfield’s plan entitled “Vision 2020” was adopted by the city council originally in January 2010. The document recently underwent scrutiny again for updates and revisions, and approval of the changes by the city council.

At inception, city officials received input from stakeholders such as Hill Air Force Base, Freeport Center, Davis School District, residents and business owners to compile a strategic plan outlining goals, strategies and tactics to help guide decisions by city leaders.

Periodic reviews and updates to the plan were recently done by the city council. This includes reflecting what portions of the plan have been accomplished, as well as planning its future direction, according to the approved resolution.

“As time has progressed, we have seen a lot of positive change in the city,” said City Manager Adam Lenhard. “There are a lot of areas where we have completed goals and some tactics that were put in place originally. We felt it was good to do a two-year update. We looked at everything.”

Year one accomplishments include starting a space-based needs analysis and feasibility study of turning Clearfield’s old City Hall into a community arts center, providing incentives to large national retailers, and completing/presenting a draft site plan to UTA for development of the rail stop, which includes a plan for office and retail space as well as higher-income housing units, according to the appendix of the approved 2012 plan.

The newly approved plan details those accomplishments and more. The accomplishment of those things led to the need to update the plan, Lenhard said.

Like with the original plan, Lenhard said there was an extensive process to ensure feedback from stakeholders was included. This was done via outlets such as public hearings.

All of this input led to the creation of a new No. 1 goal at the front of the official document, which is to be viewed at the city website, www.clearfieldcity.org.

Lenhard said that goal is to encourage economic growth and job promotion through increased focus on economic development activities.

“The goal is not necessarily more important than others, but it is where our focus will be,” he said.

This focus will be done via avenues such as business recruitment, expansion and retention, Lenhard explained.

“We know we have limited resources,” he added. “We will need to look at maximizing and prioritizing those resources to get the best bang for the buck.

“There is a huge private sector component that can affect this, but we will do the best that we can,” he said.

Lenhard added that accomplishing the goal extends to doing things with pride and public image as well as managing open spaces.

He explained that with the most recent revision most of the goals were adjusted in some way, with those being both big changes and others just minor tweaks. There are 102 different tactics included in the plan with many being either new or revised tactics.

Overall, thus far, the vision has been a success, according to city leaders.

“We are looking at setting the right course for the future through 2020,” Lenhard said. “We are really optimistic about that. We have set challenging goals, but we are pleased with the changes taking place.”